GAZA STRIP: The Hamas-run health ministry early Friday said that Israeli fire killed 20 people and injured 155 as they waited to receive aid in the Gaza Strip.
The United Nations has already warned of looming famine there.
In a statement, the ministry said citizens had gathered at a roundabout in Gaza City in the north when they were fired upon by Israeli forces, revising upward an initial toll of 14 dead and 150 wounded.
Director emergency services at a hospital in northern Gaza, Mohammed Ghurab, told media there were “direct shots by the occupation forces” on people waiting for a food truck.
Several bodies and people who had been shot were seen on the scene.
There was no word by the Israeli army on the incident.
The United Nations has warned of famine in the Gaza Strip, which has been under siege since the start of the war on October 7, when Israel was attacked by Hamas.
In the wake of the humanitarian emergency, some countries have been forced to cut aid, including by air and sea, as land access to Gaza through Jordan, Israel and Egypt has been restricted far beyond aid agencies’ requests.
According to the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip, at least 31,341 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in retaliatory shelling and relentless Israeli ground operations in the Gaza Strip aimed at destroying Hamas.
